A month after Trump told China's leader that Americans were spying “like hell” on the country, a scholar at UC Berkeley, who fled Myanmar in the '90s, was arrested in China on suspicion of espionage.
Min Zin, an American political scientist and Myanmar policy scholar with ties to UC Berkeley, has been detained in China on suspicion of espionage, as the Associated Press reports.
Min Zin is reportedly a longtime Myanmar democracy activist who fled the country in the 1990s after participating in the 1988 pro-democracy movement and later receiving asylum in the United States. According to the New York Times, he now serves as executive director of a Myanmar policy research institute and has spent years working between the US, Myanmar, and Thailand.
He’s also a Ph.D. candidate in political science at University of California-Berkeley, where his research has focused on civil-military relations and political transitions, and he’s written extensively on Myanmar’s post-coup conflict and China’s role in the region.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Min Zin was arrested on suspicion of “engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security.” The AP reports that a Burmese activist familiar with Min Zin said he disappeared June 3 after traveling to Kunming in Yunnan province for a conference, noting that he had visited China previously without incident.
The arrest follows a report last month in the Daily Beast that President Trump recently informed Chinese officials that both countries engage in spying and cyber operations, emphasizing that Americans “spy like hell on them, too.”
The US State Department said it’s aware of Min Zin’s detention and is providing consular assistance, while Chinese officials reiterated that foreigners in China must follow local law.
According to the Times, it’s estimated that roughly 200 US citizens are currently being held or restricted in some form of detention in China.
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Image: Police officers and residents stand in front of a shopping mall while a large outdoor screen broadcasts Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on May 14, 2026, in Xuchang, Henan Province, China. Trump is visiting China amid ongoing discussions on trade, economic relations and geopolitical issues between the United States and China. (Photo by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
